The new PING G Le3 line of golf clubs is many things. But the item at the top of the list is also the simplest.
It’s good business.
The PING G Le3 lineup, you see, is a full line of custom-fit and custom-built clubs specifically for women. In case you hadn’t noticed, more women are playing golf than ever before.
The National Golf Foundation’s most recent statistics show the number of women golfers in the U.S. alone has grown 15 percent since 2019. Overall, women now make up 25 percent of all on-course golfers.
For a company such as PING with a long history of supporting women’s golf (you’ve heard, perhaps, of the Solheim Cup?), it’s a smart move to potentially capture a large share of a growing demographic.
This isn’t a watered-down, “shrink it and pink it” boxed set, either. It’s a full line of premium gear with all of PING’s current technology.
PING G Le3 For Women
PING Executive Vice-President Stacey Pauweis is the granddaughter of Karsten and Louise Solheim.
“The new PING G Le3 family offers a full set of performance-engineered custom-made clubs that deliver added distance, unmatched forgiveness, a confidence-inspiring look and a pleasing sound,” she said in a prepared statement.
The set includes a driver, fairways woods, hybrids, irons and putters. These aren’t your standard PING products with lightweight shafts. PING says the line has been engineered from grip to tip for 80 mph and lower swing speeds.
What’s more, the entire lineup is available for custom-fitting and PING-authorized fitting centers.
G Le3 Driver and Fairways
PING is using its best technology in the new G Le3 series. The high-MOI driver features lightweight shafts and grips to help get the ball up and fly generally straight. The titanium head features a forged face and a fixed, high-density weight in the rear for a low, back and slightly heel-ward center of gravity. That’s a recipe for faster ball speeds and higher launch.
Oddly, the G Le3 driver also features crown turbulators and a Vortex cavity. Presumably, that’s for an aerodynamic advantage but even PING has told us that aerodynamic advantages start to peter out as swing speeds go down. But, heck, here we are.
The driver is adjustable with PING’s lightweight Trajectory Tuning Hosel. The 11.5-degree driver can be loft-adjusted up or down 1.5 degrees as well as lie-adjusted up to three degrees flat.
The PING G Le3 fairways come in four flavors: 3-, 5-, 7- and 9-woods and are also adjustable. Those heads are stainless steel with a maraging steel face wrap to optimize face flex while reducing spin.
Irons, Wedges and Hybrids
While not even remotely a box set, the PING G Le3 line is designed to be a set. Specifically, the irons and wedges are meant to be blended. The irons are classic game-improvement with a low CG and high-density heel and toe weights for better perimeter weighting. Iron lofts are par for the game-improvement course ranging from a 25-degree 6-iron to a 41-degree 9-iron. They also include PING’s multi-material PurFlex cavity badge, which allows for maximum face deflection while at the same time dampening sound and vibration.
Noticeably lacking from the standard iron set is a pitching wedge. PING is making the G Le3 pitching wedge to be more like a wedge and less like a 10-iron. The pitching, utility and sand wedges feature fully machined grooves while the sand wedge has a bit of an Eye 2 thing going on with a wider sole and a slimmer hosel.
With any combo set featuring hybrids, the transition to hybrids is always a little hinky and can leave a large gap between the longest iron and shortest hybrid. To smooth that transition, PING is making each hybrid a quarter of an inch longer than the one before it. That, says PING, should provide more consistent gapping.
PING G Le3 Putters
PING rounds out the G Le3 lineup with four classic designs gussied up with a white, two-piece elastomer insert called Pebax. It features a soft front piece with PLD-inspired shallow grooves and a firmer back piece to ensure feel, forgiveness and distance control.
The four new putter models include the G Le3 version of the Anser, along with fellow classics, Fetch and Ketsch. The fourth putter is a new design called the Louise, named after Karsten’s wife, business partner and confidante.
The Louise is a mid-mallet, similar to the Tour-proven PING DS72, but with a mid-slant hosel. The Ketsch G is machined from 6061 aluminum and has a stainless-steel sole plate to maximize MOI and optimize CG.
All four feature a new G Le3 specific pistol-style grip.
PING G Le3: Final Thoughts, Price and Availability
Lightweight is officially a thing now for mainstream golf OEMs. It used to be the sole domain for the likes of XXIO, which designs lightweight clubs for all lower-swing speed players, regardless of gender. Previously, women’s offerings were most often the same head with more feminine graphics and coloring, maybe some lighter adjustable weights, and a light shaft.
A cynic may say that’s exactly what PING is doing but that’s generally not PING’s way. The company is going to great lengths to make sure customers know G Le3 is an organic design exclusively for women with a heavy emphasis on custom-fitting, just like the traditional men’s product lines.
And that “just like the men” equality includes pricing. The G Le3 driver, for example, carries an MSRP of $540. The fairway woods are $325 each and the hybrids (22-, 26-, 30- and 34-degree models) are $245. The irons (6-iron thru 9-iron) and wedges are $185 each.
And the PING G Le3 Anser, Louise and Fetch are $250, while the Ketsch G is $325.
The PING G Le3 line of women’s clubs is available starting today. For more information, visit PING’s website.
